Creating a Monster
by Machiavelli Clausewitz
Summary: At the time of RWBY Glynda Goodwitch is a very strict and judgmental person. However, she was not always like this, an event of her past triggered her to develop that type of personality. That event was the loss of her son.
1. Chapter 1

**I've been wondering why Glynda has the attitude she has, and am in the psychological school of nurture, meaning that some situation caused her to act like she does now.**

' **Text' internal thought of the character**

 _ **Text**_ **what the person reads**

 **=time skip=**

 **-POV change-**

=16 years prior to episode 1=

-Glynda POV-

Glynda heard the wale of the baby, her baby. It was the middle of a brisk Friday night in October. She was dehydrated after giving birth to her child. The nurse was cooing the baby, which was cradled in her warm caring arms.

"I want to see him" whispered out Glynda in reverence.

"Of course" warmly replied the nurse as she brought over the baby. "It's a boy. What are you going to name him."

"His name is Nick" Glynda lovingly as she cradled her son. At that moment she knew that she couldn't feel any happier than that moment. The baby had blond hair just like hers and had jade green eyes.

=Nine years later=

Glynda was finishing up her paperwork to end the semester at Beacon. With a deep sigh she expelled she finished grading the last final. Stretching her legs she rose from her desk and began her way to the door. She looked over at the blackboard to notice some of her students had written: _We Love You Professor_. She smiled, Glynda always tried to make all of her students feel at home and comfortable in her classroom. It was one of her favorite parts of teaching, being around children.

"Tell your son I said hello Glynda." came the voice of her boss. He was sipping from his usual cup of coffee, she had no idea how the man could hold the amount of coffee that he would drink in a day, but as far as bosses went he was good.

"I will Ozpin" With that, Glynda hurried to catch the last ride out of beacon. The trip back to her house was uneventful. She first rode the bullhead down to the train terminal and hopped on the three-o'clock eastern. After a short trip winding through the scenic countryside, which was for the most part devoid of Grimm she reached a quant little town called Ray. It was where she had grown up, and where she wanted Nick to grow up as well. The town had changed much since she grew up there, it had grown in size from the rural farming village she knew to become a village where trade was more focused upon with Vale. Most of the inhabitants were faunus, however, this didn't stop discrimination by the minority humans in the town.

Glynda's house was a short distance outside of town by a forest that stretched far into the distance. The house was a wonderful white walled two story house. Being at her house always made her calm being in the fresh natural air far outside the smog of the city.

When she finally got home she could hear the voices of children laughing and the sound of them running. She smiled, as she observed her son mock fighting with his best friend. She was a rabbit faunus named Velvet who was a year older than him. Velvet was bullied just shy of everyday at school, but Nick had tried putting a stop to it after seeing it occur once. He had came home that day with a black eye and bloody nose accompanied by Velvet. Glynda originally reprimanded the girl assuming that she had done this to her son, Velvet proceeded to break down and cry. Nick actually scolded her shoving her very words down her throat by reminding her not to judge people by their appearances in his cute little voice.

After that the two of them quickly became friends, due to them not being of the same race they tended to get ostracized by the other kids at school. Glynda was always worried for her son, but thought that him standing up for something he believed in was very noble.

She smiled now, seeing her son with a mock sword according to him, but was a stick and Velvet with a shorter stick going at it cracked her up. Glenda had taught her son well on how to fight and be a hunter. She had been training him since he had professed to her, quite sheepishly at the time that he wanted to be like her and be a hunter to help people.

"Hello Velvet and Nick. What are you two doing?"

"We're practicing to be hunters" shyly replied Velvet. Glynda knew that Nick had gotten her out of her shell some, but she was still very shy.

"Sounds like fun. Can I watch, I am a combat instructor at Beacon."

Both children gave a nod and started hitting each other with their respected sticks. Velvet played defensive, it was most likely due to her timid nature. Nick was quite aggressive trying to strike at any opening that he could find. After having no success against Velvet he bent down, picked up some sand and flung it at Velvet. She didn't expect that Nick would resort to such an underhanded tactic, and was blinded allowing Nick to strike her down.

"Nick! Don't ever use such tricks again! They are the only things that separate hunters from criminals." Shouted Glynda in a voice of shock. She thought she had taught him better.

"Sorry" Nick said while helping Velvet back up to her feet.

"It's okay Ms Goodwitch, I'm okay"

"Yes, but he should know better. You need to think of your actions young man. Again, sorry that happened Velvet, would you mind going home. I would like to spend some time with my son." Velvet nodded and walked off down the road.

When Velvet left Nick helped Glynda unpack her belongings for the summer. Their summers for the past couple of years had been heavy on training with dust and different tactics. At this point Nick was past his age in dust knowledge, but still merely at the middle school level compared to Glynda's Doctorate degree in the subject.

Nick and Glynda spent the summer working on combat drills, honorable ones that hunters should know. Nick also spent much of his time with Velvet and her faunus friends over the summer, Glynda was fine with this. When she was asked why she let her son play with the animals by one human mother she merely responded that she trusted Nick and if he didn't see a problem with it than she didn't either, after all they were all people in the village.

Over the summer there was an increase in the local White Fang, apparently they were under new leadership that felt that protests weren't enough, resulting to more violent means and kidnaps. Glynda wasn't concerned with the Fang, she knew that it was only a minority of people who felt that way and she had no need for concern, the attacks were only on racist families up to that point.

The summer neared a close marked by the flocking of birds south away from winter.

"Remember how I said that I didn't get you anything when the summer started?" Glynda asked Nick with a glint in her eyes.

"Yes, what about it?" Questioned Nick with a furled brow.

"Hold on" Glynda hurried into her bedroom to retrieve the item she had brought back from Vale. It was rolled up in cloth which she unwrapped to reveal a sheathed single edged twenty-eight inch sword.

Nick's eyes bulged out of their sockets. "How did you know!"

"I got the idea Christmas break when I came back and you were mock sword fighting with Velvet."

"That's why we've been sword training so much! Thank you so much!" Nick shouted and ran over to give her a hug.

A few days after the gift she was all packed up, ready for the new school year to start. She reminded Nick many times to stay out of trouble and to practice with the sword, now regretting that she got him a weapon that he could harm himself with.

-Nick POV-

Nick had gotten use to his mother being gone for a good part of the week, however she would always come back over the weekend to train and be together with him. However, the first night of the school year was always the worst. He wished he could go to Beacon, he always heard wonderful stories about it.

*CRASH*

Nick rose straight up in his bed. His mother had always taught him that if someone ever broke into the house to call the police and hide. But his mother wasn't here and after the training he went through he felt confident he could fight whoever had come for him. He snuck out of bed, grabbing the sword that he had gotten that he placed at the foot of his bed. Slowly he creeped down the staircase that led from his room to the source of the noise he stealthy tried to find what happened. It was pitch dark that night with clouds obscuring the moon and stars.

"There he is" Screamed an intruder wearing a sickly white Grimm mask standing up from a broken window, as he pointed towards Nick.

Nick wasn't fazed by this, he let out a warriors scream and charged the intruder sword in hand to stab the man in the chest. The man kicked the sword out of Nick's hands, then he made an attempt to grab him, but Nick dodged and clocked him with a right hook to the mask. The mask broke and fell to the floor as the man stumbled back. "Mr. Trod!?" exclaimed the Nick as he saw the face under the mask. It was his homeroom teacher from school. He was a deer faunus and Nick never got the impression that he had a violent hair on his body.

"Sorry kid. HE'S HERE!" Shouted Mr. Trod. Nick could hear the clatter of boots as more faunuses in masks sprinted into the room. One however strolled in, he let out the air of being the leader. He was fairly young from what Nick could judge and was a bull faunus.

"Your family has been a disgrace to this town kid. Your flea infested mother teaches humans how to fight our kind. I say no more, it's time to teach the teacher a lesson and also to rid this town of human filth!" Snarled the bull faunus as he lept towards Nick.

Nick tried to dodge, but the bull was far stronger and quicker than the young Nick. Grabbing Nick's throat he started choking him while slamming him against the hardwood flooring, causing blood to be coughed up by Nick.

"STOP! It would be better if we keep him alive!" Shouted Mr. Trod.

"Why's that, soft?" menacingly growled the bull.

"I'm just saying, the last thing we need is a martyr and especially this one, he's friends with some faunus."

"Fair point, he can also prove to be persuasive to future… unbelievers" cruelly said the bull with an evil smile forming on his face. Nick didn't catch the rest of what was said, as he lost consciousness at that moment.

-Glynda POV-

Glynda always hated to leave her son at the end of the summer. It made her feel like an uncaring monster being away from her son on the weekdays. She decided that next weekend that she got home it would be extra special.

Most of the students had already arrived at beacon and Glynda could hear laughter fill the halls, as student greeted each other for the first time in the main hall. It made her feel light hearted being part of an institution that trained these young kids justice and responsibility, as well as fond memories. She was in her office writing the lesson plan for the year on her blackboard when her scroll buzzed. Caller ID was unknown, so she didn't pick it up, it was probably someone selling something stupid like a frilly scroll holder. The scroll however didn't stop buzzing, after getting quite annoyed she picked up, "Who is this, and make it quick!"

"Is this Ms Goodwitch? I'm the police chief of Ray." Came the remorseful deep voice on the other end of the scroll.

"Yes it is, what is this about, did something happen to Velvet again and my son got involved?" This wouldn't be the first time that she had received a call from the police about her son beating up some bullies who were pestering Velvet.

"No. The White Fang raided your house when you left. I got a call by the neighbors about a disturbance. A window is broken and there's some blood on the floor."

"Oh my Monty! Is Nick alright, he must be worried or in shock" Cried Glynda, the same as any worried mother would.

"...your son hasn't been found yet. We have many people already searching the area around the house for any sign, but the White Fang has done this before here, we... were only able to find pieces of the bodies."

Glynda dropped the scroll a look of incomprehension was plastered on her face. After some time of having the shock sink in she grabbed the fallen scroll and started running towards the landing strip. She called the first bullhead service she knew of, after offering to pay six times what they normally charged she was able to convince the late night shift pilot to pick her up as soon as possible and fly her to Ray.

"Good night Glynda, how are you this fine eventing" questioned Ozpin, a look of concern on his face.

Glynda was nearly in tears, "It's Nick. The White Fang raided the house and took him."

"I'll come, do you have a bullhead coming?" Questioned Ozpin.

Glynda nodded. When the bullhead arrived both adults were waiting at the airstrip. The pilot was already told where he had to go and urgent, he didn't ask questions, making a good three months pay in a single night meant that questions tended to not be good for his health. The bullhead landed less than an hour later and they were greeted by the chief of police.

"Hello, I'm the director of Beacon and this is Ms Goodwitch, please take us immediately to the search."

"Yes of course. I'm surprised at the amount of faunuses that are out here helping, Monty knows they'll be no good, hell I'd arrest all of them if I could but apparently command wants only known not suspected Fang dogs."

"Nick was good to the faunuses his age, I… just can't believe that something like this would happen." Hoarsely whispered Glynda.

The chief shrugged his shoulders and muttered some slurs about faunuses under his breath, while leading them to the car. The drive was short to her house, it wasn't far out of town. A handful of cars were still left in the drive with tire tracks of many that left.

"Many of the searchers have given up for the night. We didn't arrive here until hours after the break in. Now it's just my deputies and the mongrel Scarletina's" Gruffly stated the head of police.

"I'm not impressed by your language at all, if I hear you say any more names like that again I will personally talk to your superiors" coldly responded Ozpin.

Glynda ran into the woods as soon as the car stopped. She knew that if Nick was running from something he would run into the woods as she told him to if any human intruders invaded the house. She was desperately searching for any sign of him, but found known. There were no footprints or broken branches that she could find. It was if the entire forest was mocking her.

It was in a clearing where Mrs. Scarletina found Glynda. Due to her sensitive rabbit ears she picked up Glinda's cries of anguish and sorrow. "Shh, Nick's a smart kid. If he's alive he'll find a way to get back, don't worry." Mrs. Scarlitina said trying to comfort the crying women.

"That's easy for you to say! Your child hasn't been taken, or… or killed" moaned Glynda tears streaming down her face reflecting the now bright half moon. After what seemed like an hour or so Glynda finally calmed down enough for Mrs. Scarlitina to coax her to return to their house. Glynda complied, she was tired with all the crying and mentally exhausted by the loss of her son, the greatest light in her world.

Mr. Scarletina was waiting by the car along with Ozpin, both had searched the woods, as seen by twigs in the clothes and hair. With a single look at both of their faces Glynda knew that they like her had no success. The Scarletina's drove Glynda and Ozpin back to their home. When they arrived it was early morning. When the group of adult reached the door Velvet opened it, "Where's Nick?" sleepy questioned Velvet.

Glynda made eye contact with Mrs. Scarletina to question if she wished for her daughter to know what had happened. With a nod of her head Glynda got the okay, "Nick's been kidnapped by the White Fang. We're all looking for him."

Velvet's face was frozen in shock. She couldn't comprehend how her best friend, who did nothing to hurt the faunus in his life, infact he was one of the nicest to them would ever be targeted by the Fang. "Why… why would they do such a horrible thing. He's just a kid!"

Glynda bent done and gave Velvet a hug to comfort her some, "I don't know, but we're going to find him." Glynda would have cried if her body wasn't as exhausted as it was.

-Nick POV-

Nick opened his eyes. The first thing that he felt as his level of consciousness rose was the cold uncaring floor that he was sprawled on. When he opened his eyes he had to make sure his eyelids were open as the room he was in was so dark it was if he was blind. 'Don't panic. You can handle this, hunters need to be able to handle this. So can I!' That thought kept him confident all of two seconds before his stomach growled. He was hungry, throat sore and his nose was matted with dry blood.

It seemed like ages that he was sitting in a balled form on the floor of the room, he had no will to explore his new surroundings, he was scared and wished to see his mother. He heard two pairs of boots clog down stairs, the sound was getting close to his position. Soon after that he heard the jostle of keys on a ring and the sliding of a lock from a door.

Nick was blinded by the light from outside his prison of darkness. He could see the outline of two faunes men. He could also smell the foul stench of alcohol. One had they key ring, a valuable prize if NAME could acquire it, the other appeared better dressed and seemed to be the former's superior.

"So you're the new guy that Adam wants disciplined. Tell me, do you know what day it is?" said non-key guy..

"No" coaked out Nick.

"Oh, Monty, you know NOTHING you filthy human!" With that non-key guy kicked Nick so hard in the chest that he swore he broke a rib. "From now on you live and die due to what _we_ in the Fang decide." Spat out the man. Both men laughed and slammed the door shut to leave Nick.

"So, you're the new guy? Nice to meet you, name's Edmonde" came a voice from a corner of the cell, I assumed it was a cell.

"Hi, I'm Nick" He groaned out, still clutching his chest. "I'm sure we'll be fine. Mom always says hunters protect those in need."

Edmonde chuckles, "I've been here two years, hunters don't come anywhere near here. This is Chateu D'if, you get sent here and it's best to forget that you had any type of life, you never get out."

"I'll get out, just you wait."

"That's what the last guy said before he starved himself to death, damn guy stank up the cell for two months after that. Nothin' better for me to do sept wait for the stench to go finally."

"I refuse to accept this. I'll get a way out."

"What'cha gonna do when you get out, you'll be an uneducated sod that no one wants." Jested Edmonde.

"You said you didn't have anything better to do, mind teaching me what you know?"

"Might as well, you won't last two days unless I do, and I like your spirit. First thing you should know is you can't rely on anything other than yourself." Nick then felt a blow hit his form on the floor, it was quick, strong and hurt like hell.

"What the Monty was that for!" Nick moaned out in pain.

"Second thing, learn how to fight properly, none of that suicidal goody too shoes fighting hunters do. Nope, you need to learn real fighting. As well as knowledge that will help you survive in a place like this, who knows, perhaps you'll actually escape from this forgotten hole."

=3 years later (4 years prior to the start of episode 1)=

Nick's eyes had grown used to the permanent night of his home for the past three years. They were having another sparring fight with their fists. There was no count down to their fights, as no real fight would give the combatants that luxury, so thus neither did Edmonde give Nick it.

Nick sensed that Edmonde was throwing a punch for his face, with a quick parry of his elbow Nick blocked the blow, he than returned the favor with a roundhouse kick to Edmond's head. Edmonde made a simple duck and followed with an onslaught of punches and kicks, all being blocked by Nick. After this had been kept up for a while both men were breathing heavily.

"I see improvement, let's move on to your next lesson." Edmonde panted. Lowering his arms to his sides.

"Fine by me, old man" Nick lowered his guard, walking over to where the two of them did calculations and wrote on the wall with a piece of rock they turned into their writing chalk. Before Nick reached the wall his head was slammed into the ground by Edmonde.

"I thought I trained you out of this" growled Edmonde holding Nick's head into the floor.

"DAMN!"

" _Now_ we'll start the next lesson, first review what you learned in that fight."

"When you're at a stalemate use words to supplement your strategy and goad your opponent into a relaxed state" Nick stated through a clenched mouth, blood running from his nose.

The two of them next worked on math, there current topic was algebraic equations with geometric shapes. Nick was surprised at how understanding of a teacher Edmonde was on the subjects that he taught, which were theoretical dust application, economics and math. Nick had learned that Edmonde used to hold a high ranking position in the economic division of the Schnee Dust Company, and was targeted due to it.

*Creak* The door to the cell let out a near numan cry as it was opened by the usual guards.

They guards frequented their cell more often than was necessary for food, since the first day the two guards had taken a liking to beating Nick up every chance that they got. These beatings were getting less painful as Edmonde trained Nick how to take punches, but he was never given enough time to heal and was certain that some of his bones were broken, and had been so for quite sometime now.

"What's it today? Whip, boots or fists?" Nick mocked them, he had somehow kept his sense of humor with him, much to the dismay of the Edmonde.

"Neither, it's game day. Also shut your trap before I do it for ya." Chuckled the guard on the left.

The guard on the right brought out a pair of cuffs and after Nick brought his hands forth they were aggressively locked in place. He was escorted in silence down long narrow passages illuminated only by torches. After some time they reached a door that was made of wood rather than the usual iron cells. Outside the door he could hear cheering of a crowd.

"What's in here" nervously asked Nick.

The guards stayed silent, their only reply being to show heine grins. Opening the door and forcefully shoving Nick inside. He found himself inside a steel barred cage. There appeared to be an arena. He was in the sunken down portion of an arena, the raised part was full of faunuses jeering and booing at him. The arena was a part of the prison that was deteriorating and featured a round fighting area with fallen down pillars that were stained with the red brown color of dried blood. On the other end of the area was a similar cage to his own housing a gaunt middle aged man.

A loud buzzard sounded, Nick assumed this indicated the start of the match as the cage he was in was lifted up, as was the other cage. Both he and the gaunt man looked at each other, not making a move towards the other.

"I am your warden speaking. The rules of this little game are simple. Kill the other one before you yourself die. If you win than you will be not be beaten for the next month and given decent food. BEGIN!" Said the announcer voice coming through from speakers that lined the arena.

The gaunt man could be seen salivating when the announcer said that the winner received food. The man ran at Nick with an animalistic howl. Nick didn't wish to fight with the man, but three years of training with Edmonde had made his muscles move on their own. It was easy for him to trip the older man onto the ground and shove his face into the stone of the arena. The man struggled to get up. Nick held the man in that position for some time, he was waiting for this horrible dream to be over. It had been hammered into Nick that killing was wrong and to value every human life. It was his job as a hunter to protect those that couldn't protect themselves, not to murder them for self gain.

"If you do not kill your opponent in the next five minutes you both will be killed. Proceed with the match" came the satanically distorted voice from the speakers.

The gaunt man was able to worm his way out of Nick's grasp as he was deliberating if killing the man was right. The gaunt man attacked Nick with new ferocity, hunger was in his eyes as he swung his arms in a rudimentary form of a punch. Nick easily blocked this and in an attempt to pacify the man broke his arm. The man let out a scream full of pain and anguish as he clutched his arm. Nick made up his mind as he watched the man. He had decided that for himself to live the man had to die. Tear streamed down Nick's face, as he approached the man clutching his arm.

"Sorry" whispered Nick to the other man.

The gaunt man tried in a blind and futile attempt to strike at Nick. Nick grabbed the outstretched hand, pushing it aside as Nick leapt forward grabbing the man's throat. He squeezed with all of his strength, tears rolling down his face. After a bit the man stopped struggling and with it the tears rolling down Nick's face. He stayed in that position until the guards entered the arena and carried his limp body out. Nick couldn't move a muscle, he was fatigued from the mental struggle and the realization that he had just murdered a man, a mother's son so that he himself could live. 'I am no hunter. I'm a monster.' Those thoughts plighted his mind as he fell asleep after being tossed back into his cell, not even uttering a word to Edmonde.

-Glynda POV-

Glynda still held on to the slim hope that Nick was alive, although since there was no sightings of him after three years of active searching and pulling in every favor she had to find him still with no news, subconsciously she believed that he was dead, but would never admit it outloud. Ozpin had convinced her to go back to teaching students at Beacon, but it wasn't the same for her. Her joy of being around children was still there, however she was far more strict with her instructions to the point where students began to resent her.

On days where she felt particularly remorseful or she had overheard a student call her an old unfeeling hag. She would sit on the couch in the teacher lounge that no one visited with the fire on, her cloak draped around her. Her cloak was made by Nick when he was eight as a birthday present for her. He always told her that she could catch a cold and that she should wear something. At the time she thought that it was a stupid gift, but found herself wearing it all the time now, reminiscing on the good times she had with her son.

Ozpin entered the room. He knew that this was where he would find Glynda. "You've gotten stricter on the students. Why's that?"

"When I look at their faces I see my own failure to protect Nick and it kills me."

Walking over to where Glynda was sitting Ozpin stood in front of her, "I won't be the one here who says that I knew Nick better than you, but I think that cape says it all. He loved you and I'm sure that if he was here right now he wouldn't want you to blame yourself."

"BUT HE ISN'T IS HE" Screamed Glynda at Ozpin, tears starting to well up in her eyes.

Ozpin let out a sigh. There was nothing more that he could do today. He took another sip of coffee. He would need to keep a close eye on her, she was still in a delicate mental state after the loss of Nick. 'Perhaps she believes that Nick is truly lost.' mused Ozpin to himself.

 **Please review and let me know how you liked this. I have another story I'm writing and plan on continuing one of the two, if I don't know people enjoy this I will probably stop this story.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Fret not my dear readers. I plan on continuing this story, as well as my other story if I have time for it.**

 **Summer: Most writers probably can pump out many chapters over the summer, however I will probably not be able with getting myself a summer job and dealing with getting ready for college, as well as an online course so my summer is quite packed.**

 **Reviews:**

 **Guest:** It's taken me awhile to decide who it is the Glynda married. First I thought Ozpin, but I don't think that Glynda would approve, as she would want to keep work separate from personal life. I have decided upon Qrow and I will tell more of what happened with that later on.

=Time of episode 2=

-Nick POV-

Nick was currently chained to a cold metal chair. His whole body ached from the innumerable lashes that he had received that had been his punishment for his most recent act of defiance in the prison. His chair was placed facing the warden's plush leather seat behind his mahogany desk. The warden was a wolf faunus and wore an ironed White Fang uniform that appeared quite decorated.

"You certainly are quite the free spirit I've heard. You've been here for seven years and have yet to lose hope that you'll escape." Said the warden in a bemused voice.

"Well, I try my best sir." Replied Nick, masking the pain that he felt with an attempt at humor.

Flipping through a large stack of envelopes and pulling out a handful the warden continued, "I must admit you are the single greatest factor of stepping up the security of this little hell." Flinging the top folder at Nick's face he began again, "First you tried tunneling out by using your lunch tray, pretty impressive."

"You make me blush, unfortunately what I thought was the outside was an occupied guard tower… don't remember much for what happened for the day after seeing the guard." Coily smirked Nick.

Tossing another folder at Nick, "Next you tried to escape into the crowd in one of your many fights by jumping the fence." Coming to the next folder the warden gingerly placed it in front of Nick, "this one's my personal favorite. You subdued one of your guards when the other was sick and he was taking you to a fight, confiscating his clothing you attempted to walk out of the prison. Lucky for us one of the guards that day was friends with the guard and knew that you weren't him, sounding the alarm."

"Shucks, you give me too much credit. Surely others have attempted just as much."

"No, they mainly give up after the first attempt or commit suicide."

"Why don't you just kill me than? Or do you just like seeing my smiling face in your office to much that you can't kill me?" Nick mocked.

"Haha. Trust me, I wanted you six feet under at first… _but_ I just make too much money off of you. Over two hundred successful fights and still alive. It's truly impressive. How do you win all your fights being half the height of the other contenders, any secret?"

Nick gave an evil smile, "When I was really young I read a magic book in the library. I don't remember any of the tricks, but the first rule always stuck with me...always, _always_ be the smartest person in the room."

Leaning far over in his chair so that he made sure Nick could feel the rancorous breath that he was exhaling the warden menacingly said, "are you saying I'm stupid?"

Nick smiled, "No, I'm saying this is attempt four." Flinging his wrists that were chained to the chair at the warden's hands on the desk Nick transferred the chains onto the warden. Then he slammed his left fist into the bridge of the Warden temple. He had done it many times in fights to stun an opponent or knock him out he had mastered where and how much strength had to be utilized, and the warden just felt all that experience hit him in the face.

Sucking in his breath as he stood up from his chair from the pain in his wrists he walked over to the wardens side of the table. On the wardens belt were many keys, grabbing these he started rummaging around the drawers of the desk until he found the next item that he was looking for. It was a .38 caliber six shot revolver. Edmond had taught him how to profile different individuals and on his second time with the warden he got the feeling that he was a very paranoid and insecure man, since he knew that the prison had weapons it was only natural for the warden to have his own personal self defense gun.

After aggressively binding the warden to his chair and stuffing his mouth with a piece of cloth. Nick approached the door, flinging it open he coldly scanned the adjourning room. There was a sole guard in it going through files, he glanced over at the door. The moment that the guard saw Nick, he quickly inhaled his breath in surprise, eyes dilating and nose flaring now preparing for a fight. Not wishing to alert others Nick leaped at the guard closing the distance between them in an instant.

The guard was a dog faunus who just finished pulling his eighteen hour long shift for the night. He had a daughter and a wife at home who were both discriminated against in their small town. He had joined the White Fang to make faunus kind treated like equals. In an instant however his dreams and family were snuffed from his mind, as his eyes dimmed in death. He had tried to punch at the escaping prisoner but the prisoner was far more skilled and before he could even comprehend what had hit him he no longer had a pulse.

Nick retracted his arm from the guards chest. 'Damn, he caught me by surprise and I used too much of my aura!' Checking to make sure that there were no more guards in the room Nick sprinted out the door. It didn't matter this time if there were guards in the halls that saw him or not, they would all know eventually.

The hallways of the prison were lit by lamps on the walls giving the sense that the shadows were moving with every flicker of the flames. The walls were made of stone and had moss growing in some areas. It showed the datedness of the prison. The further in towards his destination he went the moor splotches of brown dried blood lined the walls and floors.

Nick was lucky to not get spotted by any roving patrols as he sprinted down the hallways of the prisons to get to his first destination. Stopping outside of a cell door he grabbed the key ring he had acquired and began trying them. The ring was neatly separated by wards and number so it didn't take long to find the correct keys and pocket them. Unlocking the door he opened the it with care.

"Come out, I'm not a guard." Nick said to what appeared to be an empty cell except for some shadows.

Two thin forms that had blended into the shadows of the dimly lit cell moved closer to him. "Who are you, what do you want?" Croaked one of the figures.

"I'm starting a jail break. Here are the keys to the cells. The more you unlock the higher the odds are that anyone of use will make it out. Tell those you free that it was Nick Goodwitch who freed them." With that Nick tossed the key ring to the group, keeping the ones that he had pocketed earlier.

Not seeing if the two had understood his message he bolted off down the winding halls. Rounding a corner he heard a shout echo behind him. Turning to glimpse what had caught him he saw two Fang guards running at him, the glint of the fear of losing their jobs evident in their eyes. Lifting the pistol he stole he calmly pulled back the trigger and fired two shots in quick succession. The guards didn't have time to react, they hadn't been trained in what to do if a prisoner got their hands on a gun and continued baring down on the path that lead to their deaths. Their chests exploded by having been hit with the powerful rounds, without aura to protect them they died within instants due to blood loss and shock.

Without the slightest hint of remorse Nick continued to his goal. It was his cell that he was running to. Outside of it he opened it already preparing the key.

"It worked Ed! Go time!" Nick yelled, no longer concerned with any thoughts of stealth.

Edmond was standing by the door as per instructed by Nick earlier that day. Surprise could be seen on his face when the cell door opened not due to the guards, but by Nick. Although Edmond claimed that he believed that Nick could pull off an escape, three failures was not the best track record.

The two of them were sprinting towards the final step of the escape plan. "What's the plan?" Edmond inquired.

"We wait around the next corner, than we wait for the alarm." Nick spoke

"Alarm! Shouldn't that not be sounding!" Whispered Edmond in a stressed tone, still wishing to keep silent.

"That's what my mistake was the other times. If the entire prison is on alert due to a prison break than no one will notice two prisoners that lean to fly." Nick then stopped by a stone corner signaling Edmond to do the same.

"How the hell did you start a priso-" Edmond was cut off by the blaring of an alarm. Nick covered Edmond's mouth with his hand. Soon a group of guards rushed past the corner that the two were hiding.

Sprinting past the corner and through double doors that Nick was able to quickly unlock there opened up to a large hanger that contained three bullheads.

"Run the the front bullhead and start it up! I've got the hanger doors."

"Got it." Shouted Edmond back to Nick as he ran off to the bullhead.

Nick ran past the bullhead and was faced with wall of buttons. He bit his lip as he stared at buttons upon buttons. "Screw it." He began pushing and flipping anything in sight. After some time the large hangar door began to open to freedom. Also though the hanger lights began flickering on and off in a weird pattern. Sprinting to the bullhead clambering into the ship via the sliding side doors he made his way to the cockpit area.

"We're up!" Cried Edmond in surprise. He piloted the hulking bullhead outside the hangar with the skill of a drunk man hitting every light on the ceiling while making his VTOL takeoff. Shooting outside into the night air the two of them admired the stars for a little.

"Are we being followed?" Inquired Edmond in a nervous voice.

"Uh… hold on." fiddling with the controls on the dashboard of the bullhead Nick found what appeared to be a radar display, "nope, nothing in sight."

"We're free?!"

"Yup!" replied Nick, a smile forming on his face. "Do you know where you're flying to?"

"...I thought you did since this was your escape plan."

"I didn't think of any areas to escape to, I think I did at one point, but that was a lifetime ago and another me. You have any ideas."

"I used to live in Atlas, I'm sure the Atlesian military could provide us with some kind of military police patrol."

"True, but only if they don't try us for homicide in front of a military tribunal for the fights that we were forced to do. Not saying that they will, but better safe than sorry. However much I hate to say it I elect we go to Vale. It has decent infrastructure for anything that we wish to do and for its military well, you can't get better hunters in the kingdoms."

"I'm good with that. Plug the coordinates into the computer and we're good."

Nick gave a nod before fiddling with the instruments, finally he pulled up a map and keyed in their destination.

=A few days later on a cramped bullhead (specifically day after group pairings)=

"Vale control tower to unidentified bullhead please respond with your flight plan number, you have entered Vale airspace" crackled a voice over the radio.

Nick and Edmond looked at each other. They were too overjoyed about escaping than of making sure they had flight plans and they had a much larger issue to worry about. Nick picked up the radio transponder, "This is..." he searched frantically to a number or anything, finding one he replied, "Foxtrot three. We have no flight plan and plan on landing at the closest airfield we can find over."

"Tower to Foxtrot three you are not clear to land at Beacon Academy please circle and file a flight plan."

"That was more of an FYI, we have _no_ dust aviation fuel. We are landing, as soon as we can, over."

Edmond shook Nick's shoulder, "I have good news and not so good news what do you want to hear first."

Turning off the radio for the time being Nick turned to Edmond, "Bad news first."

"Suit yourself. We no longer have any fuel and my bullhead lessons I told you about never taught me how to land before I was nabbed. The good news however is I can see our landing zone, so hold on!" With that Edmond nosed the bullhead down into a steep decent to make the landing zone. The landing zone they were aiming for was a wide field of grass by what appeared to be the entrance of the school.

-Velvet POV-

Velvet had made it into Beacon academy the previous year. Her dream when she was young was to be like Nick and help people, he was the one who wanted to be a hunter to do that, not her originally. After he was taken by the White Fang she searched every available moment she had for him for two years. At that point she decided to look at her view of his absence in a new light. Since he could no longer become a hunter, she would become one for him. It was difficult at first with her timid nature and she learned much from asking Ms. Goodwitch to teach, although she felt more like a punching bag many times, she did learn much from the older women. After her first mission with her team the previous year she became enthralled with being a hunter. She loved the freedom her body felt as she fought and the feeling when her head sunk into her pillow that she had done good and made the world a better place.

Her time at Beacon was not without its troubles however. Faunuses were widely discriminated against even after multiple rights acts had been agreed to. Ozpin and the teachers tried to dissuade such conduct, but there was only so much that they could do. Her teammate Fox was most understanding of her plight, as with his red eyes he was ostracized from groups, not as much as a faunus but still enough to feel lonely.

She was currently sitting in the front entrance of the school on one of the many benches that were placed outside the school. It was peaceful this time of day with the wind blowing though the flowers and the sun's shining it's fresh morning rays over her ears. "I didn't know they let animals on campus" came a gruff retort from behind her. Followed by the laugh of three boys.

Velvet let out a groan. She knew who this year's biggest bigots would be, the source of the voice. She had taught herself to deal with those kind of people. She wouldn't physically resist, that's what the Fang did and it cost her Nick. She was resigned to find peaceful measures for her problems. She than felt her head being forcefully elevated by a hand grabbing her ears and yanking. "I said get out you damn animal, we don't need your kind here."

*SCREECH...CRUNCH*

Velvet wriggled her ears free and leaping a handful of paces away from the boys and turned her head to see what had made that dreadful sound. She saw a white unmarked bullhead with a thoroughly scratched up paint job that paired with the crater that was created in a crash. One of the side panels for the doors flew open and two figures jumped out.

The two figures were wearing tattered black uniforms of some kind. One was taller than the other, that one had black hair that seemed so suck in all light that struck it. The other had what appeared to be either brown hair or blond. She couldn't tell with it being so matted with what she assumed was mud. They both had eyes sunken into their skulls, gaunt bodies and were so skinny that even with clothes on she could see their ribs protruding from their chest.

The two were chatting, after some time the taller one broke off walking towards one of the nearby buildings. The blond strolled, or more precisely limped over to where she was with team CRDL. "Would any of you fine people know where one such as myself would acquire some food?" Asked the limping boy.

" _People_ , you left out the animal here. And not for some vagrant such as yourself." Cardin retorted.

"Uhm… follow me. I'll show you to the dining hall." Timidly stated Velvet.

"Thank you, lead on." Velvet began walking towards the dinning hall. She couldn't quite place it but she felt some familiarity about the boy. Velvet counted her lucky stars when Cardin and his group of bullies walked away leaving it to be just her and the limping boy.

*Bing-bong-bong-bing*

"Shoot, first hour bell. I have to go, but if you follow this path you'll make it to the dining hall. There might be snacks but all the breakfast is gone for sure." Chirped Velvet in a rushed voice.

"I'll follow you. I've always been interested in this school, and I've been starving for seven years, what's one more hour." Shrugged the boy.

Velvet would have pestered the boy about how he wasn't allowed to go to class if he wasn't a student, but with the limp she figured that she could easily lose him and with her timid nature if she didn't have to cause conflict, than why do so. She sprinted out of the gardens running through the halls to get to professor Port's class. When she reached her seat after running to both outpace the boy and to arrive on time she discovered that directly behind her was the boy. He wasn't breathing heavy, but he did look slightly paler than back in the garden.

"Beowolves, Ursa, Grimm. I know these creatures all by one name… _prey_. In my class you will learn... you have a question?" Port inquired pointing to a student behind Velvet.

Velvet turned her head to see who would ask such a question and she saw the boy that had come from the bullhead, "Would you say that the hunting of Grimm is superior to that of man?"

"I don't understand what you're asking." Port said with a furled brow.

"As Hemingway once said, "There is no hunting like the hunting of man, and those who have hunted armed men long enough and liked it, never care for anything else thereafter." Could you say with certainty that those who have hunted men would find Grimm a superior specimen?"

"That depends upon the man, and just how much they liked it." Port solemnly replied, the boy nodded his head in approval, obviously liking the answer. "Now, as I was saying in my class you'll learn how to survive and best Grimm. Why, I remember when I was a little boy..." Port told stories for the remainder of the class period. Velvet let out a groan internally and looked around the room. Others were doing the same, her soft brown eyes caught the vibrant flow of golden hair that was attached to a voluptuous women intently focused on a single point. Following where the student was looking she discovered it to be the limping boy.

*Bing-bong-bong-bing*

"Well, I guess you'll have to wait until next class to hear how my story ended." Port proclaimed, most of the students already out the door.

The golden haired blond jogged over to the boy who was limping down the plush hall. "So, where's your uniform, not that I'm complaining to see those guns" said the blonde, as she felt the forearms of the boy. Velvet hadn't noticed before, as she was more concerned with Cardin, but the boy was sporting some impressive muscles on what non-bone part of his body he had.

"Oh… I haven't received my uniform yet… it needs to be custom tailored with my slim complexion." Blushed the boy, keenly noticing that the blonde was feeling his arm far longer than necessary and he shook off the hand.

"Where are my manners" snorted the blonde. "I'm Yang Xiao Long, and this" she grabbed a girl with a red cloak that was walking beside her, "is my sister Ruby."

"Nice to meet you." Said the boy stretching out his hand and shaking Yang's. "I'm Nick."

"No last name? Velvet inquired, jumping into the conversation. "Ohh, I'm Velvet Scarletina."

At the sound of Velvets name the boys face grew dark and he faltered in his walking. "My last name is… for another time."

"Oh, mysterious, I like it!" Yang shouted giving Nick a playful punch on the arm.

"What is that dreadful stench?" Pouted a girl sporting white hair and holding one of her hands over her nose.

"That's me" sheepishly said the boy. "I haven't had an opportunity to shower in sometime. Can you point me to the nearest shower, outside of the rooms?"

"The training rooms with Ms. Goodwitch would have some showers. If you hurry you'll miss any crowd." Velvet responded.

"Thanks, I hope to see you guys around." The boy seemed to just fall back into a passing group and disappear without a trace.

-Glynda POV-

Glynda was sitting in her desk at the fighting arena. She had arrived a few minutes before the next class was scheduled to be let out to keep up her punctual reputation. She was reading her usual book, being 'Ninjas In Love' with the cover replaced with that of latest 'Dust'n Shop' catalog. Her day had been far more hectic than usual with early that morning a bullhead crashing in the front gardens of the school. When she and Ozpin went to inspect it to see if the pilots and passengers were alright they found nothing. Quietly Glynda moved the crashed bullhead with all of its parts to the bullhead hanger and her with the rest of the available staff conducted an on grounds search for any signs of injured people. The thought of it being an attack had crossed her mind and she had brought it up with Ozpin, but he responded by simply pointing out that they were at a school that trained hunters, as in the position that was congratulated for being the best trained fighters on Remnant, so why would anyone attack them.

It was there while she was reading that she heard the sound of someone singing, She frowned, no one should be in the showers, her first class started at third hour. As she listened to the singing she recognized the song, it was 'Hanging Tree', an awfully grim song to be singing early in the morning. Glynda stood up from her chair and walked to where the changing rooms and thus the shower door were located. The singing was originating in the men's side of the two doors. Taking a deep breath she yanked the door open and walked through.

The changing rooms were set up so that the showers were closest to the doors so that the students could rinse the sweat away from themselves before they reached any possibility of soaking their uniforms in water, although students being students somehow managed to do that regardless of how many times she reminded them to fully dry _before_ they put on their uniforms. She was expecting a normal students body to be showering, in which case she would reprimand them and give a stern talking to about the use of the shower in the combat class, as well as the consequence of missing the class that they were in. What she saw instead was a body that was mangled with scars crisscrossing every which way. Parts of skin were blackened and deformed with burns and the occasional rib was swelled from being untreated from it being badly damaged. The head of the owner of the body was facing the wall away from her.

"You're heading to the infirmary this _instant_!" Glynda shouted, her eyes set in furry that a person would let their body be in such a condition.

The boy turned his head to face her. Glynda was met by green eyes that were sunken into the skull and golden blond hair that was still shimmering with water droplets, "Who the hell are you?" questioned the boy.

"I'm professor Goodwitch, the combat instructor. March young man to the infirmary before I drag you there myself."

"... I don't know where it is." Sheepishly said the boy.

Glynda let out an exasperated sigh. "Follow me." she curtly said, as she began marching to the infirmary, closely trailed by the boy.

When they reached the infirmary they were met by the head nurse. "What brings you here today?" Glynda stepped to the side to reveal the boy she was escorting, he still had on only a shower towel to cover himself. "Wow… what did you do to him Glynda!"

"I didn't do anything, I found him like this five minutes ago showering."

"You need immediate attention, how long have you had those ribs of yours broken." Snapped the nurse, preparing tools to set the many bones that needed to be set.

"Couple months I'd say." Mumbled the boy.

"Pardon me" Questioned the nurse.

"A couple of months at least." Shrugged the boy.

"Fine, we'll go with that. What's your name, I need to sign you in."

"Blank." Said the boy in a set tone.

"You have to use a real name, and _don't_ even think of lying. My semblance will know if you do."

"I refuse." Growled the boy in a low voice, showing his patience to be running out.

The nurse, getting frustrated twisted one of the broken bones that the boy had, the boy subsequently winced in pain, but didn't cry out. "At Least give me your first name."

"Nick" whispered out the boy.

"Alright Nick, see you when you wake." Said the nurse with a smile on her face.

"WHAT!" Cried Nick, realizing that he had been drugged. Before he could say anything more the full force of the drug hit his system, knocking him out.

Glynda stayed in the infirmary for the whole of the next class period. Staring at the boy made her heart leap, although the reason for that was lost to her. She felt like she knew Nick, but at the same time she didn't. The nurse had taken some x-rays and patched up the wounds that she was able to fix. He had three broken ribs, broken collar bone and a fractured tibia. When the x-rays were developed the nurse let out a gasp. "What is it" questioned Glynda, walking over to the nurse.

"Nearly all of his bones have been broken at one point. Even from hunters that were lost in the wilds for years haven't had this many injuries."

"I heard the news that we found one of our crash pilots. Is this him?" Questioned Ozpin peering through the door.

"Yes, I'm going to call the police to handle him when he wakes."

Ozpin held up his hand to signal Glynda to stop, "If he can survive that crash than I want to talk to him _without_ the interference of police."

Glynda realized what Ozpin was getting at, "Surely you aren't going to make him another exception, there aren't even enough students to form another group with him."

"I'll place him with the other… exceptions if I do like what I see. How long until he wakes up?"

" _Now_." Growled Nick.

"Good, tell me how would you like to be a hunter?" Asked Ozpin in his usual non-objective voice.

Nick stayed silent for sometime before answering, "No."

Ozpin smiled at the response, "and why not."

"Your students believe that the greatest foes they'll face are the Grimm. I differ in that belief, and have a darker outlook of the world than the students. Adding me to this school would be like adding oil to water, they don't mix."

"That's why I want you here. You can't cook a good meal without vegetable oil and water. You've obviously seen many things, where did you get your… wounds."

"Another time would be better" was the forlorn response Nick gave.

"For the time being just stay here and recover, I'll sort out the logistics of this situation out, for the time being feel free to join in the classes while you recover." Ozpin gave a small half smile and walked past the entrance of the door frame into the hallway.

Nick put his head down in the pillow and appeared to be asleep. The nurse came over to where Glynda was, "What's your take of the boy?"

"I don't know, I feel like I recognize him from somewhere, it's frustrating. Can you give a psych eval of him, since you're also our schools best psychologist."

"No problem with the evaluation. Speaking of which, how are you holding up with the loss of your son? It's been awhile since we've had a talk about it."

"It hurts" was the hollow reply Glynda gave. "I can make it through the day if I can convince myself that by training hunters then I'm helping his memory, but it's a struggle everyday." Glynda was staring out the window as she spoke, sorrow dripping from every word she said. "Bye" was the last word she said to the nurse before she left the infirmary.

Glynda shut the door behind her before she saw what happened next. Nick, who was previously sleeping awoke with a start and began a fit of shaking. He saw the nurse looking down at him with a curious gaze, "please don't go." Shakily said Nick, a voice full of fear. "I don't want to wake from this dream. I don't think I can handle it again."

The nurse walked over to his bed, leaning in and in a caring voice said, "you aren't dreaming, now get some rest." Pushing his head back into the pillow and giving a smile that revealed no ill intentions she stayed in that position until Nick drifted into sleep.

Glynda made it back to her class for the ending half of third period. She was teaching the second year's combat. When she entered the combat room she was met with a large group of teens talking and goofing off in their respective teams. "I want ten laps around the school now!" Glynda shouted at the class. There was a large collective groan from everyone at her order before they began their laps.

A boy with matching red hair and eyes broke away from the mass of students heading for the door to confront her. He was holding a bundle in his arms, "Hello Ms. Goodwitch. I found these in the boys locker room. What do you want me to do with them?"

"Thank you Fox. I'll hold on to them for the time being. Now start your laps."

"Yes ma'am." Hurriedly replied Fox before running to join the group in front of him.

Glynda looked down at what she had just received. There were two items. The first was a .38 caliber revolver. She slid the cylinder holding the rounds open to see what type of ammunition was being used and to possibly find a name. To her surprise she found two used cartridges in the cylinder and the remaining four to be illegal hollow point rounds. Hollow points had been made illegal since their invention sixty years ago, their purpose was for one thing, that was the indiscriminate act of murder. The rounds once hitting flesh would shatter causing internal damage and would largely be a one hit kill to anyone without an aura. The second item were rags that appeared to be some sort of gown. It stank of blood and sweat, with dark red splotches covering all features of what used to be the black background. Turning the rags over she saw two white features on the blackness. The first was a serial number, a number that should only be fit for vermin not for humans to be identified by. The second was the claw and jaw emblem of the White Fang. The emblem she despised over anything else in the world. The emblem which represented the organization that had taken her son.

 **Next chapter will take some time, as I will be gone for the week preceding this chapter's release.**

 **I will discuss more of what happened in the prison later on, as the need for such information is needed.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Delay: I'm sorry for such a long wait. I had tons of stuff to do and on my freetime I was stuck with writer's block forever. I still have some writer's block, but I think I can figure things out when I get to them. Without further adieu, enjoy!**

-Nick POV-

Nick's eyes fluttered open as his brain began to operate on a level of consciousness that was acceptable to the living. The first thing he noticed was the lack of Edmond's snoring in the cell. After his eyes adjusted to the unnatural brightness of the room he looked around. He found that he was in an actual bed, an occurrence that hadn't happened in over seven years.

A person wearing an all white uniform, who Nick assumed was the nurse placed a pen and a stack of paper in front of him. "I see you're up. I'm sorry to pry, but Ozpin told me that unless you took the test I'm going to give you, the school must turn you over to the police." Said a woman wearing a white nurse's uniform.

"That's fine. I'm good with close to anything at the moment."

"All you have to do is answer these questions on this sheet, than you can head down for breakfast. I'll be right over here if you have any questions." The nurse gestured over to her desk at the front of the room.

Nick gave a nod of his head to show his understanding and took the indicated sheet with a pencil that the nurse provided. The questions seemed quite straightforward and common knowledge, they didn't take long. After finishing the sheet he handed it to the nurse, "Where's the dining hall?"

"Take a right down the hallway, exit the doors and it's the building in front of you. Take care."

Nick removed the sheets of the infirmary bed and found he wasn't wearing any clothes. Quickly placing the covers over his body he looked at the nurse to see if she had seen anything. She gave no sign of seeing anything and continued working on papers by her desk.

Getting up the nurse said, "I'll get you a set of clothes." The nurse disappeared for a moment and returned with the school's uniform for males. Nick grabbed it and quickly changed while the nurse turned back to her work. The clothes felt far more restricting from his previous open rags, but he liked the feel of it. Something about the jacket and tie made him feel more professional, and in charge of his own life.

Nick followed the instructions that the nurse told him to get to the banquet hall. Halfway there he could smell the food, causing his parch mouth to salivate. When he entered the building his nose was met with the heavenly assortment of every type of breakfast food imaginable. His mouth was salivating with anticipation of fully gorging himself at the open buffett. After grabbing enough food for two full plates he stood at the center of the buffett looking for any open seat.

"Over here!" Shouted a blond that Nick recognized. 'What was her name again, Yang, that's it.'

"Hi Yang." Nick shouted back, as he brought his food laden plates over.

"Wow, you have a lot of food! Almost as much as me" Cried out a petite red haired girl who was introduced to him the other day as Ruby.

"I haven't eaten in a long time. I was practically starved for quite some time." Chuckled Nick.

"Too bad Blakey isn't here for us to introduce you to her. Anyway, this is Ice Queen"

"Hey! I'll let you know I'm Weiss Schnee, heir to the Schnee Dust company." Cried the white haired girl from earlier.

"You're still Ice Queen. Moving on this is Nora, Pyrrha and Jaune." Yang said introducing her fellow tablemates.

"Nice to meet you all, I'm Nick. What were you guys talking about?"

"Jaune's being bullied by Cardin Winchester." Said Pyrrha.

"No I'm not, he's like that with everyone. He's not a bully." Jaune put the last word in air parenthesis.

"Stop it." Said someone in a whiny voice from another table. Nick looked over to see Velvet having her soft coffee ears being pulled from her skull.

"I told you they were real!" Scoffed Cardin with the rest of his team laughing in support.

"Tsk. That boy is revolting the way that he torments faunuses." Came a voice with detest from behind Nick.

"Ohh. Perfect, Nick, this is Blake, Blake meet Nick." Yang's boisterous voice cut through the topic of the bullying.

Nick turned his head to see this Blake. He knew from spending years surrounded by all types of faunuses that he was looking at a cat faunus. Something about her felt… familiar. He didn't actively despise faunuses like some others that he had met in the past few years, but he sure as hell didn't like them anymore.

If nothing else being a fighter in no bar hold matches taught him to always be aware of his surroundings. He heard the sharp intake of breath that he knew from practice was a tell tale sign that someone was in the pain where they would normal scream, but refused to let someone see they got the better of them. He looked over and wasn't too surprised to see that it originated from Velvet. The one thing that Nick hated more than faunuses was bullies, and frankly this 'Cardin' character was a well known one.

Standing up he strolled over to where Cardin and his crew were still harassing velvet. "Now I'm not sure if you knew this about me, but I hate bullies. So move along now before I cause a scene."

Exhaling his foul smelling breath into Nick's face Cardin replied, "What'cha gonna do about it loser."

Stepping in close so that only him and Cardin could here he growled,"Taking your play toy. Now back off before I have to hunt down your family and kill them. Because believe me, it won't be slow. Hell, I might even have you watch as they scream" He leaned back and gingerly grabbed Velvets arm guiding her over to his table with the bubbly characters of team RWBY and JNPR. Cardin's face seemed paler. Cardin realized that when people talk about doing the types of things that this boy just had without even batting an eye with that much hate showing, they weren't people you wanted to cross. Or at least not without having a plan.

The rest of lunch was quiet and uneventful. Velvet seemed quite, but at the same time happy. She seemed to enjoy being around the overly optimistic team of RWBY and JNPR. Nick wasn't paying much attention to them though, he was far more focused on keeping an eye on a little deer faunus who was sneaking out of the cafeteria quite suspiciously.

Nick heard that sounding of the school bells announce that it was time for classes. He had no idea what his class schedule was supposed to be. At first he thought it would be interesting to search the halls, but he lost interest in that after being drawn to the first class that he walked by. It was full of innocent students talking, laughing and collaborating together. All the things that he had strived his time at Beacon to be like, at least at one point it was what he strived for. Now he wasn't sure.

Nick decided to walk back to the infirmary. 'Perhaps the nurse is done with the evaluation, or has a class list' was the thought that caused him to be outside the door he was at currently. He had stopped outside the door due to hearing two voice from inside discuss something, both he recognized.

"I don't care if you think that it would be a bad idea to interrogate him about the White Fang uniform I saw he had. I'm doing it anyway and you can't stop me Opal!" Nick recognized that to be the voice of Glynda. 'Opal, I guess that's the nurse's name' Nick mused to himself.

"It won't do any good. His mental evaluation shows he's unstable! He's probably a pathological liar!"

"I don't care, as long as he might have an idea of what happened to my Nick!"

"What would happen if he did, and Nick did comeback. What then."

"I'd protect him, make sure nothing ever happened again."

"He wouldn't need protecting, he'd be 16 and would have survived what happened to him. What if he was a psycho who's murdered his way out of prison?!" Nick was duly impressed that by random chance she described his escape quite accurately.

"The Nick I know would never do something as heinous as that! I woul-" That was all Nick needed to hear. It was what had slowly started killing him from the inside out. His first kill, than his second, soon it was ten and then it just stopped mattering how many he killed. How many lives he destroyed, or the countless families he had fractured. Nick didn't give a Monty Ohm ass what happened anymore. His path was more clouded than it had ever been.

Before Nick knew it he was at the bullhead landing. Having silently fled from the infirmary's conversation his feet seemed to take them to where he needed to be. At first he thought that the obvious reason he was there was because he was supposed to leave. But after scoping the surroundings he found a familiar bunny sitting on a bench under a tree, just enjoying nature. He didn't wish to disturb her, and began walking away from the location.

"You're the new kid, Nick right?" Came the silky voice of Velvet.

"Ya, I was just leaving. I don't want to disturb you."

"At lunch you seemed lost. Is everything okay?" Velvet looked at him with care in her eyes. "Please sit down." She gestured to a spot on the bench beside her.

Nick snorted, "I'm the one who was lost, what about you being bullied. Where was the rest of your team anyway?"

"They're out on a mission, I couldn't go because I got sick prior to leaving."

"That sucks. When do the bullheads come to take students down to Vale?"

Velvet gave a sad kind of smile "they come every other hour until ten pm."

Nick really didn't want to get involved with anyone and then have to leave. But it was Velvet and he should have at least said hi to her when they meet again, "Whats with the sad face?"

"It's nothing. It's just the day that my best friend was taken by the White Fang."

"Ha! Bunny and vagrant, who knew you two were an item." Shouted a gruff voice behind them. Nick recognized it to be Cardin. Nick turned his head to get a view of the bully, who was being tailed by his three teammates. Luckily for Velvet, Nick didn't see her blush when Cardin called them an item.

"I'm not in a good mood Cardin. If you know what's good for you give me… and her some space."

"You see, I want to be a hunter and protect my race from grimm and flea ridden faunus scum!" Cardin's response received a good chuckle from his teammates.

"Velvet, let's go somewhere else." Nick told Velvet in a warm soft voice. She gave a small nod and holding her hand, which was trembling they began to walk away from the jeering boys.

After making a few strides Nick felt a hard hand against his shoulder. "I didn't say that you could leave did I lover boy?"

"I'll be a second, go on ahead please." Nick's voice was steady and projected an order, not a request to Velvet. Velvet hurried off into a nearby building.

"Ohh, so lover boy you think you can be at hunter huh? Your pet's going to break up once she sees what we'll do to you!" Nick gave an internal sigh, 'Cardin had received a warning, not listened and now it was time to fight.'

Nick slowly took off his school blazer and tie while Cardin and his goons continued their mocking. Cardin made his first huge error when he turned to look back at his friend Russell to make another sly comment. That's when Nick made his first move. He hooked his right arm around Cardin's neck and began to squeeze. Cardin began to struggle. But the more Cardin struggled the tighter the iron grip tightened.

Russell was the first to recover from the shock of seeing a friend slowly grow pale with lack of oxygen. "Let him go!" He shouted, his only response was a killer's glare. Russell swung his arm out in an effort to free his friend and punch Nick in the face. Nick unlocked his arm from the choke hold and proceeded to dodge the blow. Stepping into the punch Nick lifted his left leg and crashed it down onto Russell's outstretched knee.

*CRACK*

"Arghhh!" Russell let out a cry of pain. His knee was bent at a sickly angle in the wrong direction. Russell fell to the ground and began squirming away. Cardin was still on the ground trying to take in any available oxygen with the other two backing up. Nick calmly and purposely strolled over to the fallen Cardin. Squatting down to Cardin could more easily see his face, Nick's eyes were dead.

"I get it. I won't be mean to anyone again." Rasped Cardin in broken speech, he had yet to fully recover from his choking.

Nick's empty eyes stared back at him. Nick picked up Cardin's right wrist and slowly, painfully bent it back.

*CRACK*

Cardin was no longer speaking coherently. He seemed to be whimpering on the ground, pleading for forgiveness.

-Glynda POV-

She was fuming at Opal. Both of them was giving the other the cold shoulder after their heated argument. Glynda couldn't believe that Opal was questioning her ability to love her son. She had an aching wound in her heart from when he disappeared that had never been filled from anything. She tried many different things, from alcohol to dates, nothing worked.

"Excuse me, but can you direct me to a new student by the name of Nick. I was told I would find him here." Glynda turned her head to see who had spoken. Standing at the door was a man wearing reflector aviator shades, white shirt and a dapper looking suit without a tie. His clothes didn't quite match his face however, he had sunken cheeks and his lower jaw was multiple shades lighter than the rest of his face, as if he had recently shaved after not shaving for years.

"Who are you?" Opal questioned the odd man in here domain.

"Call me Edmonde. I'm a friend of Nick's. He said he'd be arou-"

"COME QUICK. Cardin's beating up Nick!" Velvet had rushed past Edmonde when she burst into the room. Her face was flush from sprinting to the room from where she had just been.

"WHAT!?" Simultaneously cried Glynda and Opal at the same time in concern. Glynda hadn't felt that attached to Nick, but to hear that another student was fighting him purely for pleasure was sickening.

"Ohh Monty. This is bad!" Edmond's grabbed Velvet's arm forcibly, "bring me there NOW!"

Velvet wasn't going to be asked twice and bolted through the halls and down stairs leading to the gardens by the bullhead dock. Edmonde, Glynda and Opal followed as close as they were capable of following to a rabbit faunus in flight.

Glynda was very concerned with what she saw. There was a sole figure laying on the ground, motionless. She rushed over to inspect who it was. It was Nick, however unlike Velvet had claimed there were no visible marks to be seen.

"Where's Cardin and his goons?" Velvet asked, her brow furled in confusion and ears straight on alert.

"Ohh, them. They just talked to me a little and then went off. I thought it was such a nice day I should relax here." Matter of factly stated Nick. Velvet's face grew flushed with embarrassment and her ears dropped to almost covering her coffee brown eyes. She thought that she was doing the right thing by seeking help, but was just wasting other people's time. She saw the disappointed stares that Opal and Glynda gave her, she was nearly on the verge of tears.

-Nick POV-

'That was close. I just finished hiding the bodies when they burst onto the scene. I've got to remember how fast Velvet is.' Internally thought Nick. Externally he was discussing with the group how he was enjoying the school. All in all a pretty boring conversation. At some point during it Velvet snuck off to be alone, she didn't talk much during the discussion on the trouble that team CRDL had done since they got to the school.

"Nick, please come with me, I want to discuss the report that you took earlier." Opal finally brought up a subject of interest.

"That's a good idea." Nick got up, while Opal lead the way back to the infirmary. Passing Edmonde he placed a note into his friend's pocket. The note merely told Edmonde where Nick had placed the injured bodies of the four boys and what he wished done with them, being that they disappear for some indefinite time.

The walk to the infirmary was done in silence. Nick was quite surprised that he was able to restrain himself from killing the boys, which was what had been ingrained in his habits for the past seven years. When they got to the infirmary Opal motioned for him to take a seat while she retrieved some papers.

"So, am I normal?" Nick questioned, with a tinge of hope in his voice.

"I thought that you would have known. You aren't if what the tests you did are valid at all, you have borderline sociopathic tendencies, however your test questions have quite a lot of deviation in them. It's as if you don't want to admit to feeling for others, but actually do. So tell me, what happened?"

"I really don't want to talk about it. They're not fond memories to relive"

"I'm sure they aren't, but if you ever need to talk to anyone, you've always got me. Anything at all, you know where to find me." Opal said gingerly. Nick could tell that it was sincere, but he didn't feel like opening up.

Ozpin strolled in with his cane clacking on the tile floor. He always knew when to make a timely entrance. "Tell me Nick. How has your day been going so far?" Ozpin questioned by the door.

"Very well I would say. I met some new friends and breakfast was fabulous." Nick smiled remembering how the meal had filled him more than any meal in the past seven years had.

"Very good. I saw that your fighting style is quite driven." Ozpin gave Nick a knowing smile.

"What do you mean by that." Nick felt sweat dripping down his shirt.

"Oh, just that when I saw team CRDL and you having a friendly sparring match you caught them by seeming surprise." Ozpin's smile seemed to be mocking Nick.

Velvet stuck her head out from behind Ozpin and shouted, "You lied. You're just like Cardin, you tell people what they want to hear, then stab them in the back!" Nick saw that her eyes were welling up with tears about his betrayal of her.

-Velvet POV-

Velvet thought that he was different than the other boys that picked on her. She thought that he somehow understood what it was like to be discriminated against and picked on. But just like all the others he had taken her trust and thrown it back in her face. He was worse than Cardin, she expected that type of behavior from him, but not from her new friend Nick, her only friend outside of her team. She couldn't believe herself. She waited outside the infirmary for the last couple of minutes just to make sure that he was okay and he betrayed her just like others had.

Velvet ran to the library. She always loved the library few people went there, and Cardin's group was not one of those few. It was quite in the library, the perfect place to calm her. She had gotten over her shyness somewhat from childhood, but she really hated it when people lost her trust, just like they did when she cried wolf to get them to save the already safe Nick earlier that day.

Velvet was crouching behind one of the bookcases staring at her favorite picture of Nick Goodwitch. She softly stroked the worn picture.

"I was so close to making a friend today. I know you used to say that to make a friend it takes effort and sometimes it hurt. I know that being friends with me meant that the other boys would segregate you more than me as a faunus lover. Do you think I should give it another shot?" Velvet paused, waiting almost to see if the face would respond, "What am I saying. Of course you can't answer. You're gone, probably for good. I have to be strong now."

She was still crouching in one of the forgotten isles of the massive library when she heard steps growing closer. A shadow appeared over her, she looked up to see Nick standing with a forlorn look in his eyes. Velvet scooted to face the opposite direction of him.

"I'm sorr-" Nick began to say before Velvet cut him off.

"Don't you dare say your were sorry for lying about Cardin. You've broken my trust, not that I had any to begin with."

"I know I probably can't regain that trust. I haven't had much experience around normal people for many years. I'm kind of broken you see. I don't trust people easily and find it far easier to throw a punch than to talk."

Velvet let out a sigh. For the life of her she couldn't force herself to hate Nick, "I kind of get that. For years it was just me and my best friend. Then he disappeared and it took me a long time to build up enough courage to talk to people again."

"What changed, if I'm not being intrusive that is."

"No, no, that's okay. I actually was brought out of my lonely world by my teammates. They're the best team here at Beacon." She continued to ramble on about her team and her adventures in it. Nick's eyes never left her. She felt all warm and fuzzy inside when he did so. It was if he was a warm fire and she was a cat curled up beside him. "I'm sure I must be sounding like Professor Port to you right now."

"No, it's fine. I'd actually like to meet this team of yours if I could." Nick said smiling warmly.

Her eyes brightened, "They're coming back in a few days. Coco, the leader always takes everyone shopping after a mission. I'll see if you can tag along!"

"Shopping? I'm not that big a fan." Nick said hesitantly.

"Ohh it's not too bad. It's not all shopping. We do other things as well. You'll see."

"All right, I'm glad we're friends right?" Nick reached out his hand to shake hers.

She shook his hand firmly back, "Friends!" She blushed some. It had been ages since she had last made a friend. And never this fast.

 **I will try my best to make next chapter funny. And you might see Nick's semblance. If anyone has any idea they wish to give about that I'm always interested. I have a good idea now, but I might change it if it's good.**

 **Hope you've enjoyed!**


End file.
